As most of you can tell, I have been working on branding myself online in a way that is memorable and fun. I choose to build off of The Real Josh and start connecting all of the pieces online into that central brand. I will continue to develop and grow other brands as well such as Who’s Got Room? and whatnot. But overall, anything I touch will in some way fall under The Real Josh brand umbrella.
Why The Real Josh?
I started joshwhitford.com about two years ago in an attempt to share my ideas with the world and interact with others online. I have been quite successful as this blog shows continued growth. As I started moving into more social spaces online I wanted a name that could easily brand me across most platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Video Sites…). I have used other names in the past but they don’t really mean anything special to me, mostly gaming handles from days when I would play games online.
Out of the blue the name The Real Josh occurred to me as a username relatively untapped. I am sure there are millions of other Josh’s in the world so I figured I would set myself apart from all of the others and brand myself as The Real Josh. Although I don’t own therealjosh.com as a url I will own the brand online. Soon, I suspect after writing this post I will be ahead of the pack in the search results. Kinda like how Griz will soon rank #1 for problogger.com. You don’t need to have the url in order to own the competition.
Besides, who can remember and spell Josh Whitford?
What’s the future for The Real Josh?
I have no idea. I really don’t. This could be brand I keep to myself and online buddies. Or this could one day bloom into something great when people mention Josh Whitford the reply being “The Real Josh, right?” The future is wide open at this point, but what I do know is that I will continue to brand myself as The Real Josh and as I become more successful so will be brand.
Soon I will be partaking in more branding in my videos with a cool intro thanks to Steve Sherron my favorite video blogging trust agent. Thanks man, you’re truly awesome and a great find.
Why brand yourself at all?
There is no right or wrong reason to brand or not brand yourself. Everyone has a brand attached to them whether they like it or not. The simplest reason branding matters is that I help shape the discussion around me. If I don’t, someone else will and I would much rather have a say if you know what I mean.
I don’t ever expect to have a Stalinistic control over my brand and how I feel other’s should view me. That won’t work in this day and age. I just want to be sure people have a place to talk about my brand that I can help influence.
Thank You
In the end I want to thank each and every one of you. After all, it is the interactions I have with all of you that keep me posting and engaging online. If it weren’t for totally awesome people such as yourself, this would not be nearly as fun or enjoyable. I am not 100% sure why any of you follow me, read my blog, comment or the like but know that I appreciate it very much. I’ll end this with an open invitation that if I can help you in anyway online/offline, let me know and I’ll do my best. Take care.
Facebook
LinkedIn
Twitter
Viddler
YouTube
@Hanji, I am slowly plotting my conquering of The Real Josh across all platforms as I mature into this brand.
Hello Josh
I bet after this post.. you’ll definitely rank high for therealjosh. Thanks for putting together a great blog. Hope you keep having success!
hank
Thanks for your comments Josh – I enjoy your insights immensely and in fact, helped inspire me to put fingers to keyboard Keep up the great work!
@David, thanks a lot. I am glad you started writing because you have some awesome content. Keep up the good work.
Josh,
I’ll be honest… when you first followed me months ago on twitter, I looked at the numbers of your followers, then some of your blog posts and your “therealjosh” just made me think you were / are cocky.
If you were famous, we’d just know you as “josh”… If you weren’t trying to get thousands of followers thru a lame “get more followers” pyramid scheme, I may have not thought these things.
Look at the social media tried and true leaders… I know NONE of them that suggest an “auto follower” MLM type thing to build your base.
It’s just plain dumb. Listen to your Gary Vee videos and try concentrating on people who care about you, not trying to game the system.
Adam in phx.
(via MT)
@Adam, You're absolutely right! In fact since then I have been unfollowing people more than following them. I don't believe using auto follow/unfollow programs is the best for personal brand (hence why I stopped) but I have no problem making money from those programs. If people want to go that route and buy those programs I will gladly let them use my affiliate link.
I'll write an honest review about what those programs can and cant do including my personal favorite and let people make up their own minds. Twitter has changed over the past year. People that are using Twitter are finding a balance and not putting up with crap and using their better judgement. I wish I could start all over again but I'll simply wait for things to take place more naturally.
I appreciate you stopping by and leaving a comment.
Josh, You must have stopped just today / yesterday because "19 hours ago from API" you posted
http://twitter.com/therealjosh/status/5242531144
Which said "more followers" then a link to
twitterfollowerspro.com
So… you either haven't stopped using lame programs, or you stopped 1 minute before you replied to my comment.
@acmephoto
Adam, my account was highjacked and I had to delete those tweets as I did not tweet them. I have since disallowed programs from accessing my twitter and changed said passwords. Sorry you think I am total scam and yes I did stop by about a min before replying. Such as life.